Sales Training for Insurance

Whether you are the principal of an agency or a producer, sales training is critical to your success. It has surprised me to find how many producers out there are not sufficiently trained in the finer aspects of sales. In this three part series, my intention is to provide some solid tools and techniques that you can use to improve your book of business.

One thing that I hear over and over again in my discussions with producers and principals is that “Sure Things” turn into losses. A producer will swear up and down that the deal is “going great” and that it’s just a matter of putting a proposal in the prospect’s hands. “He likes us.” And then, it doesn’t happen. It becomes a price competition and the incredibly low price that was in the proposal was matched by the incumbent. Of course, most producers have other deals that they are closing. But they are missing out on some of these more lucrative and larger-sized clients because of this phenomenon.

Of course, we have extensive sales training on a solution for this exact problem and we’ve even named our business after it. The solution to this problem is to drive a “Wedge” between the prospect and the incumbent.

How do you do that?

It’s simple but not easy. First, you need to perform research on the incumbent and find out what their weaknesses are. Next, you look for areas where you are strong and the incumbent is weak. This is where you will want to focus. Finally, you turn these areas into proactive services that you provide as a matter of course. When the prospect sees that you are providing these services and the incumbent is not, the prospect will see that they are being underserved. This notion is a new one for the prospect because they had come to expect that the level of service that they were getting was what was to be expected.

Another area where I see obvious shortcomings is that of referrals. In my sales training seminars, I frequently ask the participants how many of them have set up a referral program for their existing best clients? You can hear the crickets chirping after that question. Maybe one or two hands go up. The thing is, there’s always something that gets in the way for the producer. They don’t want to ask the client for fear that it will cause a rift, or worse, they might lose the client. They think that the request is unreasonable.

As long as these barriers are in the way, the producer’s success remains constrained, albeit artificially. We spend a good deal of time with producers on removing these constraints and when that happens, they establish solid referral networks. All of a sudden they start to produce a lot more income with a lot fewer clients and the same amount of work (and sometimes less).

The last item I’d like to discuss is warming up cold calls. If you are making a cold call, you have to know at least two things. The first is how to get past the gatekeeper. Sometimes that’s not an issue when you happen to have direct phone numbers. But in the instances where it is an issue, keep this in mind. Be confident and make it appear personal, almost as if you know the person that you are trying to reach. Don’t do any sales pitch to the gatekeeper. That person can’t decide anyhow. You’re wasting your time.

Once past the gatekeeper (the first hurdle), you now have to ask THE RIGHT QUESTION to have your prospect stop and think for a minute before angrily slamming down the phone. Coming up with that question requires thought. You need to think from the perspective of the prospect for this. What would that prospect want to hear that would have them shift their attention from what they are focused on. It will have to be something that speaks of an obvious benefit or speaks to a problem that they have been putting up with. Ask yourself, what problem does that organization have that I can solve easily and without much of their time and energy.

If you want the toolkit that makes this dirt simple, click here to find out about the Sales Manager Toolkit